The DREAM Movement’s New Agenda: Five Young Immigrants Tell Us Why They’ve Moved Beyond Seeking a Pathway to Citizenship

Demonstration following the failure of the NY DREAM Act in March. (Photo: Von Diaz)

No group has been more visible in the struggle for immigrant rights than undocumented youth. Taking the name DREAMers, evoking both the proposed federal DREAM Act as well as a sense of hope about achieving the “American Dream,” these young people have been on the front lines of one today’s most prominent civil rights struggles.

In New York, an estimated 90,000 young immigrants are eligible for the DREAM Act. But the recent failure of the New York DREAM Act squashed their dreams of financial aid for college. More than a decade after it was first introduced, the federal DREAM Act has yet to be enacted. And so for this influential group of young activists the level of frustration has reached a new high.

As a result, growing numbers of young immigrant activists have turned away from the core goal of the DREAMer movement. They have repudiated a proposed law that they once fought for, which would provide them a pathway to U.S. citizenship. Now, they argue the proposal is unfair because it would leave behind their undocumented parents and grandparents.

Thousands still continue to fight for comprehensive immigration reform. But the struggle for immigrant rights is changing once again.

Feet in 2 Worlds spoke to activists at the forefront of this transformation. Listening to their voices can make it easier for the rest of us to understand what’s at stake, and how the political system has failed to provide what matters to them most—a chance for a happy life with their families without fear of deportation.

(Photo: Miranda Shafer)

Sonia Guiñansaca

Four years ago, Sonia Guiñansaca was your typical immigration activist. She identified as a DREAMer, and was arrested during a civil disobedience demonstration in Washington D.C., dressed in a white cap and gown. Now, the 24 year old Guiñansaca no longer refers to herself as a DREAMer, but rather as a poet and cultural activist.

She says after years of being a leader in the immigrant rights movement, public policy debates began to feel robotic, and often stripped her of her identity.

“The DREAMer narrative disciplines and censors a lot of undocumented people. It brings notions of who’s a good immigrant, and who needs to prosper in the U.S.,” she says.

She is critical of the movement that has elevated young, undocumented immigrants like her to a higher status than other unauthorized immigrants.

“I think we talk about the border, but we ourselves within the immigrant rights movement, we’ve been building walls, about who we are and as human beings and people and our experiences. And now artists are debunking all of that stuff and saying no. We’re beyond that, we’re more than that,” she says.

Guiñansaca is currently completing a degree in Africana, Puerto Rican, Latino and women and gender studies at Hunter College. She moved to New York City from Ecuador in 1995. In addition to her poetry and academic pursuits, she works on the Undocuwriting project at CultureStrike.

Photo: Von Diaz

Razeen Zaman

Razeen Zaman is 24-years old, and has lived in the U.S. nearly all her life. Her family immigrated from Bangladesh 22-years ago after her father got involved in politics, and was violently targeted by an opposing political party. They attempted to come through official immigration channels, but she says they were scammed by an immigration attorney and subsequently fell out of legal status.

“I think there is a lack of understanding of how easy it is to become undocumented,” Zaman says. “There’s a lot of talk of people standing in line (to become citizens) and doing things the right way, and there are so many people who have tried to apply for ways to legalize their status. But unfortunately some of those paths are just not there right now.”

Zaman studied post-colonial studies at Sarah Lawrence as an undergrad, and revealed she was undocumented in 2010—the same year the federal DREAM Act failed in Congress. That year, she joined the New York State Youth Leadership Council, or YLC as it’s widely known, and began working on writing and introducing the New York DREAM Act.

Today she’s a law student at Fordham University, and the campaign organizer for the YLC. When the NY Dream Act failed on March 17, she was frustrated and dismayed, but adamant that they’ll get it reintroduced.

While committed to continuing the push for legislative reform, Zaman and the rest of the YLC have shed the signature “DREAMer” label. She says many reject the “special category” created for young undocumented immigrants created by President Obama’s Deferred Action program, or DACA. She’s become equally invested in pushing for an executive order to halt deportations, and is pushing for work permits and drivers licenses for all immigrants.

(Photo: Von Diaz)

Claudia Muñoz

Last year, after seeing the hardships caused by deportations in her community, Claudia Muñoz turned herself into the Calhoun County Correctional Facility near Detroit, Michigan. Her goal was to organize detainees from within, advocate for their release, document the conditions they were living in, and test government claims that those being held had committed crimes.

“I was actually detained in a county jail, which is not just with immigrant women, but also American women who had been put through this cycle of poverty and violence. I went in thinking, ‘none of these immigrant women should be in here,’ and left thinking, ‘none of these women should be in here at all.’ It really impacted the way I see mass incarceration as a whole, but also how we fail women in this society,” she says.

Muñoz didn’t come to the U.S. as a baby, and she didn’t come with her entire family. When she was 16 years old she moved to Houston, TX, where she came to live with siblings who had already immigrated. She went to an historically black high school, and there became conscious of racial inequality in the U.S.—something she continues to connect to immigration reform issues. She once traveled between Houston and Monterrey, Mexico often on a tourist visa to visit her parents and other family members, but hasn’t been able to return to Mexico since 2001 because of her legal status.

In college she became more involved in immigration reform activism, and like many young people traveled to Washington D.C. to demonstrate and lobby Congress for reform legislation. When her nephew was caught with a small amount marijuana and put into deportation proceedings, she began questioning the criminal justice system and the politics behind the record number of deportations, expected to hit two million during the Obama administration.

Currently, Muñoz works as a labor organizer for grocery store workers in New York.

“The legislative part is one small part of it. And even for those with papers, those who have a Green Card, if they commit a crime it can be revoked. Dignity isn’t going to be restored to the immigrant community by giving them a Green Card,” she says.

(Photo: Steve Pavey)

Marco Saavedra

The first time Marco Saavedra, 24, infiltrated an immigrant detention center was 2012, a story which was later captured by This American Life.

He was also among the first wave of the #BringThemHome campaign, known as the DREAM 9, undocumented young people who traveled to Mexico and crossed back into the U.S., calling attention to immigration policy, border politics, and young people deported before Deferred Action was implemented by President Obama’s 2012 executive order.

“There has to be some responsibility in the community for those who do have access to this knowledge, to educate more and more people,” Saavedra says“I think everyone that has the consciousness and the time to be in the movement, and has the time needs to help people understand how we divide immigrants between deserving and not.”

Saavedra moved to Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood with his family from Oaxaca, Mexico 20 years. He became interested in immigration reform activism as an undergraduate student at Kenyon College, where he became aware of the intersection between racial equity, human rights, immigration, and the criminal justice system; and turned his attention to deportations and immigrant detention centers.

Today, in addition to supporting his family’s Oaxacan-style Mexican restaurant, La Morada, he works with the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which helps provide public defenders for immigrants in deportations proceedings.

(Photo: Von Diaz)

Dominique Hernandez

Dominique Hernandez describes the climate among undocumented youth as one of anxiety, fear, and hope. She says frustrations are particularly high among immigrants who were young when they became activists, but now are in their mid-20s or older and no longer identify as youth. She says they feel left behind by the DREAM Act and the conversations surrounding the special privileges awarded to young people.

Hernandez has been in the U.S. for 10 years, moving from Ecuador when she was 14 years old, and has lived in Queens, NY ever since. She came with her mother and two sisters, following her father who came to the U.S. in 2002 seeking relief from economic hardship.

She’s in her final semester at Hunter College, completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology and art studio, where she’s focused on drawing, photography, and social practice art.

“I still don’t label myself as an activist. Art was a way for me to communicate things in different ways. It was more flexible for me to share things in art-making, than just using language. Especially when English is not your [first] language,” she says.

As the field organizer for the YLC, she’s worked closely with Razeen Zaman on the NY DREAM Act. Recently, Hernandez has been putting energy into artistic initiatives at the YLC. The YLC began as a support group, and focuses on “creating safe spaces” for undocumented youth to share their experiences. A few examples are the Arts and Expression program, which focuses on using art as activism, and plans an annual “coming out of the shadows” event where undocumented youth can share their stories.

“Art-making can shape the way people think about particular issues. When you use art as a tool to shift the conversation, from how the anti’s have already shaped this conversation, it’s a particularly powerful tool. We can talk about things that we want to talk about. Instead of talking about taxes we can talk about separation of families,” she says.

Fi2W is supported by the David and Katherine Moore Family Foundation and the Ralph E. Odgen Foundation. The Fi2W Magazine was made possible in part by The Media Consortium and the Voqal Fund.

About Von Diaz

Von Diaz is a writer and radio producer based in New York City. She is a self-taught cook who explores Puerto Rican food, culture, and identity through memoir and multimedia. Her work has been featured on NPR, American Public Media, StoryCorps, WNYC, PRI’s The World, BuzzFeed, Colorlines, and Feet in 2 Worlds.
Von has an M.A. in journalism and Latin American and Caribbean studies from New York University. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, she earned a B.A. in Women’s Studies and focused her research on women in Latin America. She is a currently a Production Assistant at StoryCorps, and previously worked in community advocacy and communications for nonprofits focused on women, children, art, and Latino culture.

Daniel N Penaloza

As someone who is of Spanish descent, I am APPALLED at the unfounded “rights” these people are seeking. People, you are here ILLEGALLY, you BROKE the LAW – this is a country of LAWS!!! You DO take resources away from us, TAXPAYERS, legally living in the USA and PROUD to be AMERICANS – this is our country, not the place where we feel comfortable, we take the good with the bad every day.

I have been to Latin America and seen at 5 AM, in the cold, in the heat, lines of individuals outside the Embassies of the USA (also Canada and European countries). All holding documentation, many making a long trip to their Capital city they can barely afford. Many already have professions, many speak the English, and all understand they are coming to a country of Laws – which is not the case of where they were born.

Knowing you defy the Laws of the USA and make the population of the USA wonder why should you stay? What is special about you? Many of these “dreamers” demand Free Higher Education? (Not even the American Indian demands this – and they have the absolute right to ask for this life improvement – I CANNOT GO TO U.C.L.A. and tell them register me at a California resident rates and look for grants for me – PRONTO!). Now, being a Bi-Lingual country – which is a myth, for most Hispanics are not fluent in EITHER language – WHY? the concept DIVIDES countries – examples: Belgium, Canada, former Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, etc … having multi-lingual documentation and services IS EXPENSIVE and UNNECESSARY.

When will you start blaming your parents for messing up your life? For those who did finish your Higher Education, why not do the noble thing and return to YOUR countries and FIX THEM?!!! I cannot go to Mexico or any country and expect to given a job, just because I say so, it’s my Human Right, nor should I!

No country can allow the burden of 12,000,000 people that pick and choose laws; that loudly claim benefits they have not earned through years of taxes, and only are here for the comfort our Nation gives, not because they feel 100% American – we are tired of [fill in]-American, we need proud Americans.